1   Attendance

The following members of the Board of Directors were present at the meeting: Brett Cannon, Stephan Deibel, David Goodger, Steve Holden, Martin von Löwis, Tim Peters, James Tauber, and Raymond Hettinger (arrived 17:08). Also in attendance were Kurt Kaiser (Treasurer) and Pat Campbell (Administrator).

2   Minutes of Past Meetings

The 8 December 2008 Board meeting minutes were approved by a vote of 7-0-0 (in favor – opposed – abstentions).

3   Votes Taken Between Meetings

No votes were taken since the 8 December 2008 meeting.

4   Status of Past Action Items

(Pending action items appear like this.)

Action items are tracked in the private PSF wiki and their status is recorded in the regular minutes. The numbers in square brackets (like "[0]") refer to the action item ID on the wiki.

5   Action Items in the Meeting Minutes

The purpose of the Action Items page in the PSF private wiki was clarified: the wiki is to be used to update action items on an ongoing basis in lieu of a time-consuming in-meeting review, but the current status is to be recorded in the regular meeting minutes as usual.

6   Changes to the Bylaws

S. Deibel just sent the proposed bylaws revisions to the members. There is no action to take at this point, while waiting for feedback from the members.

S. Holden noted that we should directly raise the question of making these changes by Board vote, possibly at the next meeting. "We want to have the approach legitimized by member opinion at least."

7   Trademarks Committee (TMC)

J. Tauber gave a status report:

There are 3 longstanding matters: Python4D, pypi.info and RPyC. The first and third had much discussion but no firm decision. The second one was overwhelmingly negative.

I have just sent an email to the committee to discuss the voting process / timeline. We do an okay job with discussion but we need to pin down how to vote.

D. Goodger noted that as there was no voting procedure in place, no vote took place. J. Tauber confirmed, but suggested that the details of the voting process be left to discussion on the TMC list.

S. Holden noted the earlier suggestion to use the private wiki to record decisions.

J. Tauber had process questions:

1. Should we publish a TMC email address for enquires or have them contact the Board?

   Consensus: the PSF Board address is appropriate.

2. Should requests for nominative uses go to TMC at all?

   Consensus: the TMC should be copied on Board replies to such requests.

3. Should the Board inform the requesting party or should the TMC? The chartered role of TMC is just to make recommendations to the Board.

   Consensus: the TMC will report back to the Board, who will make the notice.

   S. Holden: "We could, of course, change its charter; but let's start out with the committee reporting back to the Board. After a while the Board will just be copying the opinions, then we can let the committee run."

Wider registration of Python trademarks was discussed. S. Deibel noted that "we need to consult with someone re: trademark law in Europe."

S. Holden reported that he spoke with Van Lindberg (PSF counsel), who suggested we consider registration initially in the EU, Australia, China, and Japan. S. Holden: "In a wider context it would be good if there were chapters in each country where the mark was registered."

Action items:

1. [37] J. Tauber will set up the PSF private wiki for the Trademarks Committee to record decisions and salient points of discussion.
2. [38] J. Tauber will work with the Trademarks Committee on establishing voting procedures.
3. [39] J. Tauber will document the Trademarks Committee procedure as discussed at the Board meeting.
4. [40] J. Tauber will work with counsel on a proposal to register Python trademarks.

8   Sponsor Members

S. Holden asked, "Do we see it as our role to market and advertise for sponsor members, or would we prefer to passively wait for them to come along?"

T. Peters: "I'd rather hold off on answering that until the changing role of sponsor members is clarified in the revised bylaws."

M. von Löwis: "I think this is the budget question again. If we had more sponsors, what would we do with the sponsorship money?"

9   Members' Meeting

S. Holden noted that we need to start preparing for the members' meeting, and recommended that the Secretary make use of the PSF Administrator to reduce his workload.

S. Holden: "I think with the new bylaws in place we should start to feel more comfortable about expanding the membership."

T. Peters: "Note that anyone can nominate members at any time."

S. Deibel: "We may even be able to vote them in more frequently than annually..."

[41] D. Goodger will issue a call for membership and Board nominations.

10   Legal Issues

Issues related to charitable donations were discussed. PSF counsel reported back that we're "probably OK", and given the enormous costs of worst-case compliance we decided to let it be for now.

S. Deibel asked if the PSF has liability insurance, and if so, does it cover the Board? K. Kaiser replied that we do have liability insurance but not Directors' E & O (errors and omissions) insurance.

[42] K. Kaiser will look into acquiring errors and omissions insurance for the Board of Directors.

11   PyCon Report

D. Goodger:

Registration is set to open January 21 (I need to discuss with KBK later). Hotel reservations can be made now, via links on the site. We're getting the new server set up.

A/V recording: There is currently a debate between volunteer-based and professional recording. Based on our track record (not good with last year's volunteer-based), I lean toward professional, but it will cost. $25K is budgeted (which would be enough for volunteer or semi-pro, i.e. paying amateurs), but full professional recording will run $40K to $50K. Is it worthwhile to us to pay for good quality recordings? I think so.

PyCon 2010: CTE is currently negotiating with our top choice of venue. It looks like we'll have firm numbers shortly.

The PyCon 2009 budget is online at http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pyx4TeJX2JDoy9Go263u1Qw

We're looking at a deficit this year.

The Board agreed that paying for professional recording is worthwhile. K. Kaiser: "It might be useful to be able to back out of the recording at the last minute if finances looked iffy." S. Holden noted that it might then be too late to mobilize the volunteers.

S. Deibel suggested deferring professional recording until next year, to be more conservative given our situation and the economy. T. Peters: "Getting good recordings is part of running a quality conference. Losing money on PyCon is fine."

The Board agreed that investing in quality recording is worthwhile. Approval of the PyCon 2009 budget was deferred to email.

S. Holden:

Let's try to engage the volunteers in other activities that will build on the professional video with more engaging feature-oriented stuff rather than just say "we don't need you".

J. Tauber: "was the problem last year the recording or the conversion/putting online?" D. Goodger replied that the problems were: getting good recordings, having permission forms, and post-production (editing etc.).

S. Holden: "I am somewhat concerned about the late opening of registrations: gives us very little time to adapt if numbers are down. Any way to address that next year?"

12   Treasurer's Report

K. Kaiser emailed an accounts receivable report to the Board mailing list.

S. Holden noted that we are late billing our sponsor members, "but Kurt assures me the invoices will go out this week."

K. Kaiser further reported:

Current Assets      430K
AR                   20K
                    ----
Total Assets        450K
AP                    9K
                   -----
Net                 441K

The new [PSF Board] server has been set up and hardened. Mail server and user accounts set up. Need to get an account for 'psf' on dinsdale and move the repository.

Payroll modified to handle new positions and compensation levels. Discussed foreign payments and withholding with IRS. Received proper withholding deposit forms.

Focusing on sponsor invoices, finishing the server (need for PyCon soon), and quarterly reports.

S. Holden: "Are we exposed to the failure of any banks, or are we federally insured on it all?"

K. Kaiser: "I think we need to split to another bank. I have investigated one here in NH that has a very high bankrate.com rating. What counts is how much is in the bank, not how the accounts are set up."

13   Adjournment

S. Holden adjourned the meeting at 18:02 UTC.